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Thoughts on version control comments?

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  • 25-06-2014 4:11pm
    #1
    Steviemoyne
    Registered Users Posts: 649 ✭✭✭


    I'm a student after completing work placement and they used Team Foundation Server with Visual Studio to handle version control.

    When checking in an item there was always an option to provide a check in comment, I used that feature extensively without being told to do so.

    If I made changes to a method for example I would comment saying what I did, "Method X modified" , "Bug Y fixed on X method" or similar.

    My questions:

    What's best practice in industry for commenting version control check-ins?
    Are they used much as opposed say looking at the date of a check in for a rollback or comparison purpose?
    And are they used by supervisors or the like to check you're doing work and what you did?
    Any other alternatives to Team Foundation Server used regularly in industry today?

    This is all mainly for my own curiosity.

    Thanks in advance.


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    #2
    CreepingDeath
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,016 ✭✭✭CreepingDeath


    We use Jira to record bugs.
    So EVERYTHING that requires a code change has a Jira reference, including improvements not just bugs.

    We've a validator on the SubVersion source control check-in comment, that it has to be of the format

    "[<Jira Reference>] Bug description + any other comment".

    Eg. "[PLAT-1000] Added support for AES encryption to security plugins".


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    #3
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    As the above, slotting in ticket references allows for people to historically check to see what changes were made on foot of a specific ticket. It's easy enough to review changes to a specific file or a specific class, but finding out what other changes were made at the same time is harder.

    A single JIRA ticket may reference a specific class that needs to be modified, but the coder or the reporter may not note in the ticket that they also had to tweak a dependent class as part of that ticket. So someone who is attempting to review that ticket may not see the additional code changes you did outside of that class.


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    #4
    Steviemoyne
    Registered Users Posts: 649 ✭✭✭Steviemoyne


    Very interesting. I've only been exposed to Team Foundation Server as a version control tool but Jira sounds interesting. Guess I'm doing it right so, I normally try and include exactly what I changed as that's what my gut told me I should be doing.


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    #5
    punk_one82
    Registered Users Posts: 1,148 ✭✭✭punk_one82


    Similar to above - where I work a commit to SVN without a Jira reference as a prefix will fail. The level of detail on comments comes down to the individual developer, but at the very least there's a Jira reference and a one line description of the commit.

    It varies from check-in to check-in IMO. Some changes may only require a one line description, others may need a bit more of an explanation about what was done and to which classes.


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    #6
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    I've never used TFS, but given that it's a big integrated environment I would be surprised if it's not possible to link the agile/project component to the source control one so that every check-in/commit is linked to a ticket in a project/sprint.


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    #7
    jester77
    Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    We also add the JIRA ticket num + what the commit is about to our git commits


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    #8
    The_B_Man
    Registered Users Posts: 7,859 ✭✭✭The_B_Man


    When we add the comment like "JIRA-123: I changed Blah.java...", the JIRA page shows what files were changed so if you only mention one file in the comments, you can refer back to JIRA and it'll give you a fuller picture.


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    #9
    Steviemoyne
    Registered Users Posts: 649 ✭✭✭Steviemoyne


    seamus wrote: »
    I've never used TFS, but given that it's a big integrated environment I would be surprised if it's not possible to link the agile/project component to the source control one so that every check-in/commit is linked to a ticket in a project/sprint.

    You can link "work items" up to check ins and then have rules set up to edit the "work items". Eg: Change a work item from Approved to Committed when a check in occurs from a specific user.

    They never used that feature but it was there. I got tired of how slow Visual Studio online was for creating items so I linked it into excel and created them from there which was 10 times faster.

    All in all Jira sounds very interesting, I gather it's the most popular form of version control? Judging from the replies here that is.


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    #10
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    JIRA's not version control, it's ticket management. For that, it's very popular. I think most people use either Git, TFS or some form of SVN for version control.


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    #11
    Steviemoyne
    Registered Users Posts: 649 ✭✭✭Steviemoyne


    Ah right, I wouldn't be too familiar with anything other than Git or TFS.


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    #12
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,082 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    It's not very hard to use a different one.

    We too use Jira. I say what I did and then the jira ticket. Then update the jira ticket with the check in number.


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    #13
    Giblet
    Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    We use Youtrack which supports issuing commands via comments, as well as tagging a fix.


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    #14
    jester77
    Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Tar.Aldarion wrote: »
    It's not very hard to use a different one.

    We too use Jira. I say what I did and then the jira ticket. Then update the jira ticket with the check in number.

    There's JIRA plugins that will do that automatically for you, for SVN and git at least. They keep tabs on your history and include the diffetent commit details in your ticket.


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    #15
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,082 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Sounds good, Ill have a look, probably wont use it very much with comments I have to write on jira but may be useful


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    #16
    jester77
    Registered Users Posts: 11,262 ✭✭✭✭jester77


    Tar.Aldarion wrote: »
    Sounds good, Ill have a look, probably wont use it very much with comments I have to write on jira but may be useful

    This is the one we use for git, unfortunately it's no longer free since about a year but it's well worth it for any development team.


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    #17
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,082 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Maybe something like this, https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/wiki/display/SVN/Subversion+JIRA+plugin or https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.jira.plugin.ext.subversion
    Does anybody else integrate svn with jira here?

    It looks good where you can see the diffs etc


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    #18
    cython
    Registered Users Posts: 4,758 ✭✭✭cython


    Tar.Aldarion wrote: »
    Maybe something like this, https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/wiki/display/SVN/Subversion+JIRA+plugin or https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.jira.plugin.ext.subversion
    Does anybody else integrate svn with jira here?

    It looks good where you can see the diffs etc

    We use Crucible for code reviews, and we can integrate this (technically the Fisheye component) with Jira to show the commits for a given Jira in the ticket in a similar manner to the plugins above


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    #19
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,082 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Awesome thanks, i'd be very interested in something like this so I'm going to investigate it for work.
    Our SVN doesn't use apache and our JIRA is remotely hosted so that may be a hindrance? And it would need access through our vpn to a ssh server etc which isnt good.

    Anyway sorry for derailing the thread a bit, may make my own thread/research.


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    #20
    Steviemoyne
    Registered Users Posts: 649 ✭✭✭Steviemoyne


    Tar.Aldarion wrote: »
    Anyway sorry for derailing the thread a bit, may make my own thread/research.

    Wouldn't consider it derailed. After finding out a good deal of version control alternatives and tools that integrate well with them. So if anyone now asks me if I've heard of Jira, SVN, Crucible etc I can actually say yes I have heard of them and I know what they do (after googling based on this threads content).

    Will update the title to reflect a wider conversation. Edit: Seems I can't, but the first post has had its title updated.


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